CLEVELAND – Twelve months ago Joba Chamberlain was in Hawaii, playing in the winter league, possessing zero professional innings and residing so many hours off in time zone that he could not even watch Yankees postseason night games because it coincided with his workday.
Four months ago, he was at Single-A and as well known in New York as, say, the captain of the Atlanta Thrashers.
Barely more than two months ago, he had not ever pitched in relief and was just beginning the process of coming out of a bullpen while at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Tonight Chamberlain will see his first major league playoff game in person as the most important reliever, heck, perhaps the most important player in the entire postseason. He is phenom and difference maker.
A few months ago we didn’t even know who the heck he was. Now Yankees fans debate the rules surrounding his usage with – we can only hope – the fervor that the Supreme Court applies to cases involving freedom of speech.
So the one-year timeline looks something like this for Chamberlain: Hawaii, Florida State League, Eastern League, International League, bullpen, major leagues, instant stardom and, now, a Division Series in which he is going to be asked, in his first October experience, to dominate as thoroughly as he did over his 19 regular-season appearances.
“Let’s put it this way,” said Doug Mientkiewicz, “we can play the experience vs. first time in the playoffs angle, and frankly I don’t care for it. This kid has gotten more notoriety and love from the fans from day one than 99 percent of players will ever get in their whole careers. He has only been here two months and he has handled stuff so well that no one could have seen coming. And, honestly, I cannot imagine any player of any age handling it better. So, handling the playoffs, yeah, I think he will handle the playoffs.”
Chamberlain was so good, so fast for the Yanks that there were times you had to pinch yourself to remember, not just that this was a kid drafted in June 2006, but this was the highest league on the planet. That there was no place else for Chamberlain to graduate.
Chamberlain was not good. He was historic. He had an 0.38 ERA in 24 innings. The pitchers who have had the same or lower ERAs in a season in which they pitched at least 20 innings are the following household names: Harry Coveleski (0.00 ERA, 20 IP), 1907 Phillies; Earl Moore (0.00 ERA, 26 IP), 1908 Phillies; and Buck O’Brien (0.38 ERA, 47.2 IP) 1911 Red Sox. So we haven’t seen anything like this since DH stood for dead horsehide.
“Joba has the ‘It’ factor,” Mientkiewicz said.
He does. So did Mark Fidrych, and that lasted for one season. Will Chamberlain sustain? That, like whether he should be a starter or a reliever, can wait for another day. In the present, the Yanks are a different team because they have Chamberlain in their bullpen. And scouts say the difference reverberates across the team.
“They were going good when he arrived,” an AL scout said. “But it is like his ability and his enthusiasm just took the Yankees to another level. He was able to do a job (get the ball to Mariano Rivera) that they had not been able to solve for so long, and he did it so well and with such confidence and charisma that it just boosted the whole team.”
As Mientkiewicz said, “He gives us an attitude and an edge. He essentially says, ‘Here’s my best. What can you do with it?'”
There is certainly something to the attitude. In the same bullpen, Kyle Farnsworth throws his fastball and slider at similar speeds to Chamberlain. But though he is a veteran, Farnsworth does not have near the self-assuredness in his stuff that Chamberlain does in his. Chamberlain stalks a mound. He also, as opposed to Farnsworth, has greater precision with his pitches, changes planes better, and works inside more willingly.
That is why Chamberlain, not Farnsworth or Luis Vizcaino or anybody else, will be given the ball directly before Rivera. In one year he has gone from obscurity in Hawaii to key to a Yankee October.